Emily Dickinson in Bloom

Emily Dickinson didn’t just have a passion for poetry–she also loved plants. Well, plants, bulbs, annuals, perennials, trees and shrubs – basically all things related to gardening. Throughout her life, Dickinson created a leather-bound herbarium and pressed over 400 specimens into it, all of which she labeled with the genus and species.

This manuscript, along with some of her poems and letters make up only a part of The New York Botanical Garden’s newest exhibition entitled “Emily Dickinson’s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers.” Opening this Friday in the Bronx, the show will feature three straight days of Dickinson’s poetry; visitors, staff and special guests can participate in any or all of the eight-hour sessions, the chronological marathon readings of her 1,789 poems.